Risorgimento

RISORGIMENTO: Nineteenth century movement for Italian unification
inspired by the realities of the new economic and political forces
at work after 1815, the liberal and nationalist ideologies spawned
by the French Revolution of 1789, and the ideas of eighteenth
century Italian reformers and illuministi. The
Risorgimento had two distinct phases: the first,
idealistic, romantic, revolutionary began in 1815 and climaxed in
the revolutions of 1848-49; the second, pragmatic, diplomatic,
practical during the 1850s culminated in the creation of a united
Italian kingdom by 1861. The Risorgimento had a two-fold si
gnificance. As a manifestation of the nationalism sweeping
over Europe during the nineteenth century, the Risorgimento aimed
to unite Italy under one flag and one government. For many Italians, however,
Risorgimento meant more than political unity. It
described a movement for the renewal of Italian society and people
beyond purely political aims. Among Italian patriots the common
denominator was a desire for freedom from foreign control,
liberalism, and constitutionalism. They agreed on the need for
unity among the various states and for constitutional guarantees of
personal liberty and rights. They disagreed, however, on whether
such unity should be under a confederation or a centralized form of
government. There was further disagreement on whether a united
Italy should be a republic or a monarchy. It was on these issues
that endeavors to mesh the revolutionary initiatives of 1848-49
foundered. Radicals distrusted moderates, unitarians and
federalists disagreed, republicans condemned monarchists. Such
distrust and disagreement undermined attempts to create an Italian
Legion, or common army, to agree on a preliminary constitution
applicable to all parts of Italy, and above all to present a united
front against their common enemies, embodied in the Austrian armies
under Marshal Radetzky.
The biennium 1848-1849 marked the apex of the revolutionary,
idealistic movement with the initial participation of all factions
and popular support from all classes. From Sicily, where the first
European revolution of those years broke out in January 1848, to
the northern states of Piedmont-Sardinia, Lombardy, and Venetia,
people took to the streets against their rulers, be they Austrians
or native rulers. Everywhere, Italians joined in what they felt to
be truly their Risorgimento. But ideological and
dynastic rivalries and divisions prevented a united effort. The
Neapolitan king Ferdinand II and Pope Pius IX withdrew their
support from the common war against Austria. Consequently, plans
for an Italian League and army collapsed. The revolutionary
republics established in central Italy and Venice fought their
battles alone after the army of Charles Albert, King of Piedmont-Sardinia, was twice defeated by
the redoubtable Austrian commander
Marshall Radetzky (1766-1858). By summer 1849 Italian insurgency
had collapsed. In July, despite stubborn resistance, the Roman
Republic fell to French forces sent to restore the pope to his See.
In August, Venice under Daniele Manin (1804-1857) finally
capitulated to Radetzky. The heroic, revolutionary phase of
the Risorgimento was over. Its legacy and its lessons, however,
paved the way for the cautious deliberate diplomacy of Count
Camillo Benso di Cavour (1810-1861), prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia after 1852. Cavour
used the threat of potential
revolutionary resurgence to persuade conservative opinion that an
Italy united under the House of Savoy, the dynasty of Piedmont-Sardinia, would be a force for
stability. The only Italian state
with a constitution and an elected parliament after 1849, Piedmont-Sardinia exerted a powerful
attraction for the large majority of
Italian nationalists who accepted its leadership. A new consensus
emerged among all nationalist elements, except for Mazzini's
followers and other democrats who continued to believe in popular
revolution. By 1859 Cavour, assured of French military support in
a war against Austria and secure of the support of the Italian
National Society, a coalition of non-Mazzinian nationalists,
provoked the conflict. As a result, Austria was forced to cede
Lombardy to Piedmont-Sardinia. A series of upheavals in the states
of central Italy overturned the rulers and a successful campaign in
southern Italy by Garibaldi and his Thousand unseated the Bourbons.
Thus on March 12, 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in
Turin (capital of Piedmont-Sardinia) by a parliament in which sat
elected representatives from all parts of Italy, except Venetia
which remained under Austrian rule until 1866 and the city of Rome
under papal control until 1870. By 1870 the aims of the political
Risorgimento had been achieved, but many Italians,
among them Mazzini and his followers, still sought the true
Risorgimento, or rebirth of the Italian people.
Emiliana P. Noether